Frequency of Gastric Lesions in Endoscopic Samples in Urmia Imam Khomeini Hospital

Gastric diseases are common clinical conditions mostly diagnosed by endoscopy. Due to the high prevalence of stomach diseases in Iran and the world, this study was performed to evaluate the frequency of gastric diseases in Urmia Imam Khomeini Hospital. In this analytical-descriptive retrospective study all 2754 gastric pathology reports of endoscopy, derived from samples referring to Urmia Imam Khomeini Hospital during March 2016-March 2017, were studied and histopathologic type of gastric lesions were categorized into four major groups (neoplastic, non-neoplastic, polyps and dysplasia) according to age and gender. The mean patients’ age was 52.65±17.85 years. The frequency of gastric lesions was as follows: non-neoplastic (89.3%), neoplastic (6.9%), polyps (2.4%) and dysplasia (1.4%). All of them were more frequent above the age of 50. The neoplastic lesions were more frequent in men and non-neoplastic lesions in women (p<0.001). The most frequent non-neoplastic lesion was chronic gastritis (87.4%), mostly without accompanying H.pylori (53.2%). The frequency of gastric ulcer was 6.1%, mostly (79.3%) without accompanying H. pylori. Of neoplastic lesions, 99.5% were malignant (frequently adenocarcinoma) and only one case of benign neoplasm (leiomyoma) was reported. Regarding the known role of H. pylori in occurrence of gastric ulcers and cancer and the conflicting results obtained in this study, we suggest to use other diagnostic tools such as respiratory test in addition to histopathology in evaluation of H.pylori. Also, the high frequency of gastric lesions over the age of fifty indicates the importance of screening for early diagnosis of neoplasms, especially adenocarcinoma in this age group.